In New Jersey, a middle school has sparked debate by teaching students the art of protest, with critics dismissing the initiative as an unnecessary and divisive focus on social activism. The controversy centers on Clinton Township Middle School in Hunterdon County, a well-to-do area, where a mock rally was organized to illustrate civic concepts, including the First Amendment. This educational tactic was explained by District Superintendent Melissa Stager in an email that was shared by Libs of TikTok.
Footage from the event, posted on April 7, shows students congregated outside the school, holding up signs, though the specific messages on these signs remain unclear in the video. Clinton Principal Luke Mason, Assistant Principal Christina Hunte, and social studies teacher Jennifer Taylor were present as the students engaged in the mock protest.
According to Stager, the students were simulating a protest against homework, emphasizing that the lesson was non-political and suitable for their age group. Despite this reassurance, some education experts have voiced disapproval, questioning the educational value and appropriateness of the exercise.
Clinton Principal Luke Mason, Assistant Principal Christina Hunte, and social studies teacher Jennifer Taylor looked on as the kids “rallied.”
Students were pretending to protest homework, Stager said, describing the lesson as non-political and “age-appropriate.”
But education experts were not on board with Stager’s reasoning.
“It’s incredibly frustrating and appalling that school staff and teachers are misusing valuable class time to teach kids to protest, while roughly 70% of students across the country cannot read at proficient levels,” Rhyen Staley, the research director at grassroots organization Defending Education, told The Post.
Jennifer Webber, a fellow for K-12 Education Policy at the Manhattan Institute, said the middle school is actually discouraging students from thinking on their own despite the rally being billed as a lesson in civics.
“What happened in Clinton is a concern because the lesson moved from teaching about civic processes to shaping participation and influencing thought,” she said. “Then you have students introduced to protesting in schools – it’s just going to normalize their participation with these movements.”
Stager, Mason, Hunte and Taylor did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
While the faux-protest at Clinton Township was staged around the benign topic of homework, real protests against ICE have been hitting schools across the country, for example — and some experts say lessons like this one are exactly how it starts.
Youth-targeting groups like the Soros-funded Sunrise Movement have played an instrumental role in organizing school anti-ICE walkouts, according to experts.
While the group was founded as a climate activism organization in 2017, it has since shifted its focus to staging anti-Trump and anti-ICE disruptions — and is now actively encouraging young Americans to participate in a broader government overhaul, Defending Education revealed Wednesday.
A presentation from a March 17 member meeting revealed that the group is “on a mission to stop the climate crisis and Donald Trump” — and calls for a “political revolution” to “structurally change the foundations of this country” in pursuit of “eco-socialism, a multi-racial democracy, and Green New Deal legislation,” Defending Education noted.
The Sunrise Movement did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Our academic institutions should be places of higher learning, discovery, and robust debate around ideas and policies, not weaponized or punished to achieve a ‘structural change’ to the political foundations of this country,” Staley emphasized.
